EU3000: Misano practice notes

THE FINAL ROUND IN MISANO

D'Ambrosio at once the fastest, but then the rain

The rain has distinguished Saturday free practices in Misano, during the last round of Euroseries 3000 and Italian F.3000 Championship. The opening session has been competed in two different phases: the first 9 minutes on dry track, the last half an hour on wet.

The best results have been gained of course during the first stage, with Jerome D'ambrosio (Euronova) in front of everyone with the chrono of 1'27"415. Behind the Belgian, Gavin Cronje (Auto Sport) driving in 1'27"425, better than Marco Mocci (FMS).

Then the rain, and the last half an hour, exciting and full of emotions. The two title competitors, Giacomo Ricci e Marco Bonanomi (both of Fisichella Motorsport), have shown that not even the wet track can frighten them during this last round of the Championship, driving always on very fast chronos. Under the rain, excellent also Tuka Rocha's (Minardi) and Matteo Cressoni's (Vanni/Traini) results. In spite of difficult track conditions, the two debuts of the week-end have been positive: the brazilian Diego Nunes has obtained always good chronos and the young Bianca Steiner has done many laps, both on dry and wet track, to gain experience before this afternoon qualifying.

Leandro Romano (Facondini), who went unluckily out of track during the very first minutes, damaging his car, has marked no results.

Significative to point out also the great efforts of Lola, Coloni and all the teams to allow the 14 single- seaters to take the track in spite of the order to fit silencers on cars, arrived only few days before the race.

<pre> FREE PRACTICE Misano

1.    Jerome D'Ambrosio Lola B02/50     Euronova                1'27''415
2.    Gavin Cronje      Lola B02/50     Autosport               1'27''425
3.    Marco Mocci       Lola B02/50     FMS                     1'28''085
4.    Ivan Bellarosa    Lola B02/50     Avelon                  1'28''433
5.    Giacomo Ricci     Lola B02/50     FMS                     1'29''216
6.    Matteo Cressoni   Lola B02/50     Vanni/Traini            1'29''592
7.    Francesco Dracone Lola B02/50     Euronova                1'29''714
8.    Diego Nunes       Lola B02/50     Minardi                 1'30''548
9.    Tuka Rocha        Lola B02/50     Minardi                 1'31''180
10.   Marco Bonanomi    Lola B02/50     FMS                     1'31''430
11.   Vitaly Petrov     Lola B02/50     Euronova                1'32''053
12.   Fausto Ippoliti   Lola B02/50     Minardi                 1'42''694
13.   Bianca Steiner    Lola B02/50     F.3000 Rookies' Team    1'45''350
14.   Leandro Romano    Lola B99/50     Facondini Racing        no time

-credit: cm